Rescuers Improvise to Free Boy Trapped in Rocks

They had pulled victims from collapsed buildings after the Northridge earthquake and searched for survivors after the Oklahoma City bombing. But on Tuesday, in blistering desert heat, the Los Angeles County Fire Department Urban Search and Rescue Team faced a perplexing problem: How to free an 11-year-old boy who fell eight feet down a rock crevice in Palmdale, and who was slowly slipping into the earth with each breath.

It took three hours of work, some timbers and more than four gallons of corn oil.

“They let him soak a while to get his foot unwedged,” Los Angeles County fire inspector Mark Tolbert said shortly after rescuers in harnesses and helmets pulled a somber-looking Paul Hartness of Lake Los Angeles from a foot-wide crack, which narrowed to just a few inches at the bottom where his feet were lodged.

Hartness’ aunt, Annie Houtz, said the boy was playing on a rock formation, which neighbors call Rainbow Peak, with two friends, Rodney Kunkel, 11, and Travis Kunkel, 9, when he caught his foot on the lip of the crack and fell in.

The two friends ran to their mother’s house nearby--where Paul was staying--and called Houtz, who is also a neighbor. Paul’s mother was having lunch in Lancaster at the time.

Scrambling up the outcropping, Houtz found the boy wedged about eight feet down, his shirt rolled up and his face and body pressed hard against the sheer rock walls.

He would remain there, in 97-degree heat, for nearly three hours.

Houtz called 911, and firefighters responded at 12:21 p.m.

From that moment, members of the rescue team--veterans of high-profile rescues after the Oklahoma City bombing and the Northridge earthquake--had to improvise.

They shored up Paul’s feet by jamming timbers beneath them and looped padded straps of leather around his wrists to secure him.

But it quickly became apparent that he was thoroughly stuck, suspended in a crack that continued nearly 10 feet farther down from where he was wedged. With each breath he took, he slipped a fraction of an inch, slowly descending into the earth.

“Every time he would breathe, he would start to shift,” said county fire inspector Henry Rodriguez. “We were afraid if he went down too far, he wouldn’t be able to breathe” because of the pressure of the crevice walls against his chest.

What was needed was a lubricant, and Houtz, who works in a Lake Los Angeles dairy store, called a friend who hauled over bottled water and about 10 16-ounce bottles of Springfield cooking oil made from corn for the rescue effort.

Firefighters poured the oil over Paul and waited. Eventually, after several hard pulls with rope and the leather straps, they were able to work him loose and haul him up about four feet. From there, talking to firefighters all the while, Paul was able to turn his body to loosen himself sufficiently to be pulled out.

Throughout, rescuers and friends talked to the boy, telling him to stay calm. His feet and legs were numb, Houtz said, but he neither wept nor cried out.

“He’s a tough little guy. He told us how he felt and how to improve his position,” said Fire Capt. Tom Jones of Station No. 114 in Lake Los Angeles.

“It took a couple jerks to free him. He was wedged in there tight,” Jones said.

Once free, Paul--his arms glistening with oil--submitted limply as rescue workers fitted him with ropes and a harness to get him off the rock. He clutched a bottle of water and occasionally took sips from it.

One rescuer stood over him, a hand on his shoulder throughout, talking quietly to him.

He was loaded on a gurney and taken to Antelope Valley Medical Center. His legs felt numb but otherwise he seemed to be in good condition, relatives said.

Flashing a V with his fingers, he was carried away.